The commune secretary went on Facebook to find a source of goods for the people.

A corner of Chau Nga commune. Photo: Dao Tuan

Using social networks to promote agricultural products to people

In 2015, Mr. Cuong's family was one of six households in Thanh Son village selected by the commune to participate in the project of raising Egyptian egg-laying chickens. This project was supported by the Provincial Party Committee's Organizing Committee in coordination with the Provincial and District Agricultural Extension Centers.

During the project implementation period, he was trained by technical staff, guided on knowledge of raising chickens, disease prevention for chickens in each period... thanks to that, more than 40 chickens of the family have laid eggs and hatched many more batches, providing for the family to raise, at the same time providing more chicken breeds for the surrounding people.

In 6 households, each household was provided with 43 chickens and initial feed for about 3 months. Despite the project's support, 4/6 households did not meet the target, and in the end, only 2 households had chickens left. Mr. Cuong's family alone had the largest number of laying hens.

Every month, thanks to raising chickens, Mr. Lo Van Cuong's family earns 4-5 million VND. This amount of money is a great joy for people in this especially difficult area. Photo: Dao Tuan

With the knowledge learned from the project, Mr. Cuong switched to raising free-range chickens. He raised 100-120 chickens for each batch. He bought chicks, medicine to prevent and treat chicken diseases from the district town. Each batch of chickens was harvested after 3-4 months of raising. He sold them retail and also imported clean chickens to the district's product showroom. After deducting expenses, he earned a profit of 6-7 million VND/batch. With each batch, his family always had chickens to sell to people in the area. The important thing is that he worked hard to learn and accumulate experience from the project he participated in, from each batch of chickens, each type of chicken suitable for the people's raising conditions.

Chau Nga Commune Party Secretary Vo Anh Tuan (second from left), Chairman of Chau Nga Commune People's Committee (left cover) inspected the chicken farming model of Mr. Lo Van Cuong. Photo: Nhat Lan

But the most exciting thing for Mr. Lo Van Cuong's family is the attention of the Party Committee and People's Committee leaders. With innocence, Mr. Cuong said: There were batches of chickens that could not be sold, so he went to the commune to "call" the cadres.

Seeing the difficulties of the farmers, Chau Nga Commune Party Secretary Vo Anh Tuan and Commune People's Committee Chairman Luong Tri Dung rolled up their sleeves to find ways to help. The advantage was that both the Party Secretary and the People's Committee Chairman's houses were in Tan Lac town (Quy Chau), so with their connections, the two leaders of Chau Nga Commune found a source to import chickens for the farmers. Not only that, Secretary Vo Anh Tuan also went on his personal Facebook page to introduce and promote agricultural products to the people of Chau Nga. Through social networks, Secretary Vo Anh Tuan has helped people sell agricultural products successfully many times. "Once, in just one session, Secretary Tuan helped a family sell 120 chickens," said Mr. Lo Van Cuong.

“If you want to learn about the commune’s agricultural products, just search for the nickname “Chau Nga Market” and you will know more clearly – Chau Nga Commune Party Secretary Vo Anh Tuan “revealed”. Photo: Nhat Lan

Sharing about this, Mr. Vo Anh Tuan said that currently the demand for safe food and agricultural products is very high, while in Chau Nga area, there are many products that people make that are of very high quality, such as: goats, cows, pigs, chickens, sticky rice... People produce agricultural products but because of geographical distance and low educational level, product introduction is still very limited, especially the use of information technology. Mr. Vo Anh Tuan also shared that, to support people in introducing agricultural products, he directly guided some households to set up personal Facebook pages to participate in community connection activities, on that basis, people proactively introduce, promote and sell their products to increase income. "If you want to learn about the commune's agricultural products, everyone can search for the nickname "Chau Nga Market" to know more - the Secretary of the Chau Nga Commune Party Committee "revealed" more.

Women of Thanh Son village, Chau Nga commune go to the fields to weed rice. Photo: Dao Tuan

To small things in difficult areas

In fact, about 25 km from Tan Lac district center, Chau Nga commune is located in a remote area of ​​Quy Chau district. The commune is adjacent to Thanh Quan commune, Nhu Xuan district (Thanh Hoa). The natural area of ​​Chau Nga is 10,000 hectares, but of which 7,500 hectares of forest land is under the management of Quy Chau Forestry Enterprise. The whole commune has 529 households, 2,183 people living in 6 residential villages, the poverty rate is nearly 49%. The commune Party Committee has 9 affiliated Party cells with 128 Party members. Poverty, hunger, and backwardness have been clinging to people's lives for many years, the rate of school dropouts is high. This is also one of the reasons for the shortage of local cadres for many years. Therefore, currently, Chau Nga has only 3 local commune officials (judicial officials, military chief, police chief), and up to 13 people have been transferred from the district and other communes to work. Among them are Party Secretary Vo Anh Tuan and Chairman of Chau Nga Commune People's Committee Luong Tri Dung.

Chairman of the People's Committee of Chau Nga Commune, Luong Tri Dung, said that the poverty rate in Chau Nga Commune is still nearly 49%. Without pioneering economic models, the commune will find it difficult to reduce poverty. Photo: Nhat Lan

13 cadres were transferred from the district and other communes. 10 election cadres have held positions such as: Party Committee Secretary, Commune People's Committee Chairman, Permanent Deputy Secretary. Of the 12 civil servants, 9 are from outside the area, and only 3 local cadres (including Justice cadres, police chiefs, and military chiefs).

Realizing that poverty and backwardness have been clinging to people's lives for many years, along with the reorganization of personnel work, the arrangement of apparatus, the assignment of cadres and attention to Party building work, the leaders of Chau Nga commune sought to build economic models to arouse the spirit of self-reliance of the people. In July 2017, Mr. Vo Anh Tuan was assigned by the Quy Chau District Party Committee to take up a task in Chau Nga commune. Before that, in March 2016, Deputy Head of the Department of Agriculture of Quy Chau district, Luong Tri Dung, was also assigned to Chau Nga.

Chau Nga Commune has an area of ​​10,000 hectares, but there are more than 7,500 hectares of forest land managed by Quy Chau Forestry Enterprise, the whole commune has only 59 hectares of rice. Photo: Nhat Lan

Faced with the fact that the whole commune only has 59 hectares of rice fields, a large area of ​​forestry land but no production forest, the commune leaders have directed the construction and implementation of a number of economic development models. That is the pilot planting of 3 hectares of Thai jackfruit with 325 trees and selecting 4 households to participate in the villages: Thanh Tan, Lien Minh, Tan Tien, Nga My. The commune supports both seeds and fertilizers and directly guides planting and care techniques. Instructs people to plant flower-shaped trees and red sưa trees.

According to calculations by the Party Secretary of the commune, Vo Anh Tuan, if planted with good care, each tree will yield a harvest after 10 years, earning an average of 10 million VND per tree. The commune also mobilized resources to support 150 million VND for 20 households raising chickens. In particular, for families whose children dropped out of school, the commune will encourage them to return to school by supporting chicken breeds to increase income, considering this as a source of funding to help them go to school. Last school year, 6 families sent their children to high school thanks to this method.

The Quy duck breed is raised by Chau Nga people to increase their income. Photo: Dao Tuan

Regarding clean vegetable growing, ensuring food hygiene and safety, the Commune Party Committee has issued a document guiding thematic activities on "Building family vegetable gardens", with the Women's Union taking the lead, the Farmers' Association, and the Youth Union coordinating to implement. After a period of implementation, up to now, over 70% of families have vegetable gardens, with 60/75 households in the village having vegetable gardens, ensuring a source of green vegetables and food safety.